Reading this weeks Newsletter, (A paper published daily in Northern Ireland), I was delighted to read that Ian Paisley is out of intensive care and talking to his family. He is without doubt one of the dominant Irish statesmen of the last century, he is if truth be told, rather like Marmite, "you either love him or you hate him". I thought that I would type this little reflection, and hopefully not give into passions, for you see the problem is that when people talk about, "The Doc", they tend to be extremely passionate, and have jaded views one way or the other. I am not typing an historical essay, nor am I typing a critique, this is simply a reflection of the man as I have known him.
My first memory of, "The Doc", (a nickname that he was given in East Belfast, because of his D.D), was walking into a polling station with my Grandmother at the tender age of six. I entered the polling booth with my Grandmother and noticed that she put her X beside the name of Ian Paisley, as we walked away I bellowed at the top of my voice, "My Grandmother has voted for Big Paisley", my Grandmother was rather nonplussed to say the least. He, himself was not at the polling station, and to be frank, my memory of the rest of that particular day is somewhat abstract, but that is my first memory of the Doc. Aside from that incident, there were family tales. mother and grandfather would often tell me that the Doc was fond of a restaurant called, "The Red Rooster", on the Cregagh Road, and could often be seen the eating.
All through my childhood I recall the great power of his voice, he had some skill, as people would say. I myself mimic the Doc's voice, better so than many impressionists, but it was his distinctive voice on the television, and on the radio, when you heard him you were hooked. As I grew up I became more inclined to the political scene in Ulster, and it is fair to say that I did become a staunch Paislyite, both in theology and ideology, (although my ideas, thoughts, and emotions have developed since then, and I am afraid to say that I am anything but a Paislyite), he was always there, all through the days of my youth, on the TV, on the radio, in the papers, fighting the good fight, as I used to believe, a prophet for his people, what he said was the truth, and we would follow him wherever he would go. As the reformation hymn says, "Our bull work never failing", that was the Doc, he was after all one of us, he was not from the realms of the middle to upper classes, he was from our level, his detractors call him a rabble rouser, his sycophants call him a statesmen, to me he was simply one of the characters of day to day life.
As I have reached maturity, I am still impressed with him, although I disagree with his theology, he has come in from the fringes, and now become an institution in his own right. I look forward, God willing, to the publication of his memoirs, I imagine them to be a fantastic insight into the man, his life, and his mission. People will have their own views of the man, from both extremes of the divide, but to me he was a character, a man whose voice I could mimic to make my friends laugh.
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